Sleeping to Death
Pairing: Seto x Jounouchi
Summary: One day something weird happens to Seto Kaiba. Upon looking into the eyes of Jounouchi Katsuya he realises that the boy is going to die soon. What will he do? No Character Death!
Music while writing: Sound Duel 3
So, there you are. Another fic -.- I shouldn't start something new again, I know. But I just feel like doing it. It helps me out of my writer's block. Well, enjoy.
OI
Chapter One: Schatten in seinen Augen
Yugi's POV:
"No, Jounouchi!" Yugi smiled at his best friend curiously, while they walked to school slowly side by side. "I know you have!"
"Have not!" Jounouchi stretched out his tongue at him and grinned happily. The shadows under his eyes, steadily getting darker and more visible over the days, made Yugi frown though. He hid his concern quickly and shook his head, returning the grin.
"How can you have a date without kissing her," he asked doubtfully, one brow rising. "Even Yami doesn't believe you and he has no experience with this subject." He cringed slightly as Yami sent him a mental growl and a playful smack over the head, but went on anyway. "Is there something you aren't telling me?" He pouted at the blonde, knowing full well how irresistible the gesture was. Well, at least to Yami.
"No, she just wasn't... my type, I guess." Jou shrugged. Yugi saw a flicker of sadness crossing his features, but it disappeared as soon as it had come and Yugi decided to ignore it for now. If something was bothering his friend, surely he would tell him the moment he was ready to do it. Reassured by his faith in Jounouchi, he smiled, making out the school gate at the end of the road and speeding up a bit.
"Yeah, I'm sure you tell me someday," he whispered under his breath, feeling Yami's and his own doubt nagging at the back of his mind, telling him that Jou wasn't the kind of person to come and cry out his problems to anyone, but he pushed the thought aside roughly.
OI
Seto's POV:
The limousine stopped at the school gate and Seto stepped out of it as soon as it came to a halt. He wasn't in the mood to stroll today. Okay, he admitted to himself ironically, as small smirk gracing his lips, he never was. Strolling was something for people who had nothing to do and that he definitely wasn't. In general people who had nothing to do in life were downright poor. And that he wasn't, either. His smirk grew wider.
In a steady pace he walked inside the grey old building, immediately looking out for a familiar blond head in the hall and spotting it easily, even though the unbearable loud voice was missing. In fact, it had been missing for a while now, but that wasn't of his concern. Being in a lousy mood though, he decided to pay his favourite loser-dog a visit. He walked up to him from behind, leaning toward him to speak directly into his ear.
"Awfully quiet today, aren't we," he stated with a casual smirk that surely would get a rise out of Jounouchi. "Didn't you get a doggy snack yet, for coming to school in time, mutt?"
The figure in front of him froze, a shocked gasp coming from the teen as though he had been deep in thought. Always happy to shake you out of it, mutt, Seto thought, satisfied with the reaction. He gained distance to him cautiously, awaiting the attack that was sure to come.
Fight me, mutt.
"Kaiba..." The blonde sighed exhaustedly, turning around and frowning at him. Seto stumbled further back in shock as their eyes met. The honey-eyes of Jou were dull, the lids heavily dropping over the shadowed orbs as though he almost fell asleep while standing in the busy hallway. "I don't want to deal with you right now, okay? Let's go, Yugi."
Seto swallowed the lump blocking his throat, watching Jounouchi walk away, Yugi tagging along after sending him a thoroughly worried look. A questioning look. As though he knew what that was all about. He had no idea. And he didn't want to know. A single thought was stuck in his head and even while walking to his class he couldn't suppress it.
Jounouchi Katsuya was going to die.
He was dying.
Seto felt sick all of the sudden, a mix of confusion and disbelief rumbling in his stomach. No, what an illogical feeling! Why would he die? And how would he be able to see it before it happened? No, that made absolutely no sense.
Why did it feel so urgently true then? He shook his head vehemently to get the old sense back into his mind. Even if it was true, he couldn't care less. Besides that, it wasn't true. He felt reminded of Isis Ishtar and her ridiculous story about Egypt, Yugi being an old pharaoh and he himself being a priest. He had never believed such bullshit. He didn't believe in foreseeing and such as well. His overworked mind had just interpreted Jou's tired look wrong and had made up a weird story of Jounouchi dying. He would have to listen to Mokuba more carefully next time, he figured, and reduce the amount of work a little bit. Starting to hallucinate things was a bad sign. Really bad.
OI
Jou's POV:
He yawned deeply, blinking a few times and rubbing at his eyes. Why was he so tired all the time, he wondered. It got worse every day. Although he was in bed every evening at eight o'clock the latest and slept until his dad threw him out of bed roughly, yelling at him that his alarm clock ringed too loudly, he felt like immediately falling asleep again. He had slept the whole last Saturday straight through. At Sunday he had forced himself to stay awake with all the effort he could muster, going out to the mall and the arcade. He had been in bed as soon as possible then, hoping the sleep would help him to recover. But no, sleep made it even worse and that was frightening him, because he HAD to sleep.
"Jounouchi Katsuya, are you listening?" The noisy voice of the teacher chimed into his already off-drifting thoughts and he looked up at her with slight confusion. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see his classmates staring at him amusedly. It wasn't the first time today, that the teacher had to make him pay attention to the lesson and the concern was slowly edging into her eyes now as well. Her voice stayed resolute though. "I want to see you after the lesson, young man."
A few sniggers could be heard, silenced immediately as the teacher went on rambling about Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
"Well, what language did the author use in the first act," she asked, picking out a student, who waved his hand exaggeratedly, trying to catch her attention. "Yes, Hanasaki?"
"He used antithesis and oxymoron," he told her, stumbling slightly over his words. "As well as wordplays."
"Can you give me an example?" The teacher asked loudly into the class. That was when Jou blanked her words out again, not able to understand the meaning behind them anyway. He couldn't concentrate. He forced his eyes to open desperately. They burned, his lids wanting to drop down. What was wrong with him?
"An example for antithesis is the description of Romeo's behaviour," Kaiba explained, his voice shaking Jou out of his struggle to stay awake. He looked over to the brunette, who was currently boasting with his knowledge. He probably had it from a book, Jou figured, his attention slowly fading again. He was so tired. A yawn emphasised his thought and he let his chin rest on his crossed arms, halfway lying down on the table, letting Kaiba's words drop onto his senses like rain. Yes, rain was something good. Soothing. Something 'light' and 'dark'... 'day' and 'night'..." Rain... a cold breeze... something warm on his face... summer rain. Warm summer rain. Cool wind... The sun, a rainbow... light and rain.
Silence.
"Jounouchi!"
Rough touch... Something shaking him. A storm. "Jounouchi, wake up!" Loud thunder storm.
Sudden pain. "Hey, stop that!" A familiar voice. Yugi?
Jou jolted awake, his eyes sliding open. He came face to face with Honda, who seemingly had seized him by the clothes and hoisted him upwards, so that he hung like a rag in his grip. Yugi stood beside him, his features, as well as Honda's, showing confusion and something akin to fear. They couldn't have noticed, could they?
"Man, what is the uproar about," he laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "Can't a busy teenager have a little peace to sleep?" The relief on the faces of his friend made him almost sigh in relief himself, but he kept the goofy expression up. Honda let him go and sat back down at his table.
"You just wouldn't wake up." Yugi stuttered, a weak smile on his face.
"Well, I had this really nasty dream," Jounouchi explained, but was interrupted by Honda, who grinned at him cheerily.
"The one with the monkey and the..." he started but Jou punched his arm slightly.
"No, I dreamt about... um..." he burst the first thing out that came to his mind. "...Kaiba!"
"Kaiba," Honda asked, appearing to think for a few seconds. "Sex with Kaiba?" His eyes grew wide and he started gagging.
"NO!" Jou coughed, not daring to look in the direction of the CEO. "How would you think that?!"
"It's the worst thing I can imaging if dreaming about Kaiba." He shook visibly at the thought and the class laughed. Well, except two persons. One of them of course Kaiba himself, who glared at nothing in particular. And the other person...
"Now everyone sit down!" The teacher said loudly. "I don't want anyone to talk about a fellow classmate like that. Jounouchi, you'll stay after the lesson, as I said before. Honda, you as well. Let's go on with the lesson. There are some other wordplays in the first act..."
Jou could feel Kaiba's angry glare in his back, but was too relieved and tired right now to care if the brunette was going to beat him and Honda up for the comments they had made.
Let him beat me up, he thought. Then maybe the pain keeps me awake...
OI
Seto's POV:
What was going on with Jounouchi? He had been reprimanded for not paying attention in class for the fifth time in merely one hour. And again he saw his head sinking down to the desk.
"An example for antithesis is the description of Romeo's behaviour,", he said quietly, answering the teacher's question, but half of his attention stayed on the blonde. "There are contrasts like 'dark' and 'light' and 'day' and 'night'. Especially in line..." He stopped as he saw Yugi nudging his best friend carefully, trying to get him to wake up without the teacher noticing. Jou didn't move a bit, his head just rolling over to the other side as Yugi nudged him a bit harder. Everyone's attention was on the blonde by now, some rolling their eyes.
Why wasn't he waking up? Panic started to rise in Seto's chest as he remembered the weird feeling he had had after looking into Jounouchi's eyes. It couldn't be. He couldn't be...
"Jounouchi!" Yugi called, fear evident in his voice but also quite visible on his face. Seto wondered, how much he knew about the mutt's unusal behaviour, because he was acting more than just concerned. Not that he was going to ask about it, but he was intrigued just the same. And if he wanted something, he got it. And now he wanted to know what that was all about. He narrowed his eyes at the blonde.
Suddenly Honda jumped up from his place, storming over to Jou's desk and gripping the front of the blonde's shirt.
"Jounouchi, wake up," he called, his face a mask of anger and fright. He pulled the lifeless body up, shaking it harshly. Jou's still face scrunched into a pained frown, while Yugi desperately tried to stop Honda.
"Hey, stop that," His eyes flashed slightly, his voice getting more demanding than before. Seto didn't take his time to notice very much of that though. He was too relieved that his fear hadn't been real, that Jou lived.
The blonde opened his eyes, confusion and something else shadowing them. Seto's fear came back full force. His eyes were dull like before. Tired. Dying. He tore his gaze away from them, shivering. He hated that feeling.
I shouldn't care, he told himself firmly. I don't care. He isn't dying. It's not the knowledge of his death, that I'm seeing in his eyes. I have seen that before. It's not that. And what else should it be then? An imagination. The teen most likely just hadn't had a decent night of sleep for a long time.
"Man, what is the uproar about," the blonde suddenly burst out, a mask of carelessness slipping onto his face as soon as he realised his position. Seto wasn't fooled. He knew those masks too well to be tricked by one. "Can't a busy teenager have a little peace to sleep?"
The show the blonde was pulling made Seto want to run over to him and punch him. And punch him hard. It was more than obvious that Jounouchi didn't feel well. He growled softly. Those masks were something to keep others away. Why would the mutt have a reason to keep others at a distance? Well. He surely would find out. Maybe... yeah, cornering him after class and making him speak sounded like a plan.
"Kaiba!"
He snapped out of his thoughts as his name was mentioned. He blinked a few times, then he realised that Jounouchi hadn't been talking TO him, but ABOUT him. Relieved he leant back.
...Wait. They talked about him?!
"Kaiba," Honda asked, falling silent again.
Yeah, what about me? Seto was listening intently.
"Sex with Kaiba?!"
Seto's face fell, a rather red colour spreading over his cheeks before he could prevent it. Why were they talking about having sex with him?! Why was THE MUTT talking about having sex with him?!
"NO!" Jounouchi coughed, looking up to the ceiling with visible embarrassment. "How would you think that?!"
Too speechless to demand an explanation, Seto stared at the two boys. He definitely would corner the mutt after class and he would -get- him to speak not matter what! His sex-life was no business concerning them!
Well, it seemed that he had a lot to discuss with his favourite loser-dog. He smirked a wicked Kaiba-trademark-smirk and suppressed the urge to laugh out loud in the middle of the class. What a weird day.
To Be Continued...
Translation of the title:
Schatten in seinen Augen – Shadows in his eyes
Pairing: Seto x Jounouchi
Summary: One day something weird happens to Seto Kaiba. Upon looking into the eyes of Jounouchi Katsuya he realises that the boy is going to die soon. What will he do? No Character Death!
Music while writing: Sound Duel 3
So, there you are. Another fic -.- I shouldn't start something new again, I know. But I just feel like doing it. It helps me out of my writer's block. Well, enjoy.
OI
Chapter One: Schatten in seinen Augen
Yugi's POV:
"No, Jounouchi!" Yugi smiled at his best friend curiously, while they walked to school slowly side by side. "I know you have!"
"Have not!" Jounouchi stretched out his tongue at him and grinned happily. The shadows under his eyes, steadily getting darker and more visible over the days, made Yugi frown though. He hid his concern quickly and shook his head, returning the grin.
"How can you have a date without kissing her," he asked doubtfully, one brow rising. "Even Yami doesn't believe you and he has no experience with this subject." He cringed slightly as Yami sent him a mental growl and a playful smack over the head, but went on anyway. "Is there something you aren't telling me?" He pouted at the blonde, knowing full well how irresistible the gesture was. Well, at least to Yami.
"No, she just wasn't... my type, I guess." Jou shrugged. Yugi saw a flicker of sadness crossing his features, but it disappeared as soon as it had come and Yugi decided to ignore it for now. If something was bothering his friend, surely he would tell him the moment he was ready to do it. Reassured by his faith in Jounouchi, he smiled, making out the school gate at the end of the road and speeding up a bit.
"Yeah, I'm sure you tell me someday," he whispered under his breath, feeling Yami's and his own doubt nagging at the back of his mind, telling him that Jou wasn't the kind of person to come and cry out his problems to anyone, but he pushed the thought aside roughly.
OI
Seto's POV:
The limousine stopped at the school gate and Seto stepped out of it as soon as it came to a halt. He wasn't in the mood to stroll today. Okay, he admitted to himself ironically, as small smirk gracing his lips, he never was. Strolling was something for people who had nothing to do and that he definitely wasn't. In general people who had nothing to do in life were downright poor. And that he wasn't, either. His smirk grew wider.
In a steady pace he walked inside the grey old building, immediately looking out for a familiar blond head in the hall and spotting it easily, even though the unbearable loud voice was missing. In fact, it had been missing for a while now, but that wasn't of his concern. Being in a lousy mood though, he decided to pay his favourite loser-dog a visit. He walked up to him from behind, leaning toward him to speak directly into his ear.
"Awfully quiet today, aren't we," he stated with a casual smirk that surely would get a rise out of Jounouchi. "Didn't you get a doggy snack yet, for coming to school in time, mutt?"
The figure in front of him froze, a shocked gasp coming from the teen as though he had been deep in thought. Always happy to shake you out of it, mutt, Seto thought, satisfied with the reaction. He gained distance to him cautiously, awaiting the attack that was sure to come.
Fight me, mutt.
"Kaiba..." The blonde sighed exhaustedly, turning around and frowning at him. Seto stumbled further back in shock as their eyes met. The honey-eyes of Jou were dull, the lids heavily dropping over the shadowed orbs as though he almost fell asleep while standing in the busy hallway. "I don't want to deal with you right now, okay? Let's go, Yugi."
Seto swallowed the lump blocking his throat, watching Jounouchi walk away, Yugi tagging along after sending him a thoroughly worried look. A questioning look. As though he knew what that was all about. He had no idea. And he didn't want to know. A single thought was stuck in his head and even while walking to his class he couldn't suppress it.
Jounouchi Katsuya was going to die.
He was dying.
Seto felt sick all of the sudden, a mix of confusion and disbelief rumbling in his stomach. No, what an illogical feeling! Why would he die? And how would he be able to see it before it happened? No, that made absolutely no sense.
Why did it feel so urgently true then? He shook his head vehemently to get the old sense back into his mind. Even if it was true, he couldn't care less. Besides that, it wasn't true. He felt reminded of Isis Ishtar and her ridiculous story about Egypt, Yugi being an old pharaoh and he himself being a priest. He had never believed such bullshit. He didn't believe in foreseeing and such as well. His overworked mind had just interpreted Jou's tired look wrong and had made up a weird story of Jounouchi dying. He would have to listen to Mokuba more carefully next time, he figured, and reduce the amount of work a little bit. Starting to hallucinate things was a bad sign. Really bad.
OI
Jou's POV:
He yawned deeply, blinking a few times and rubbing at his eyes. Why was he so tired all the time, he wondered. It got worse every day. Although he was in bed every evening at eight o'clock the latest and slept until his dad threw him out of bed roughly, yelling at him that his alarm clock ringed too loudly, he felt like immediately falling asleep again. He had slept the whole last Saturday straight through. At Sunday he had forced himself to stay awake with all the effort he could muster, going out to the mall and the arcade. He had been in bed as soon as possible then, hoping the sleep would help him to recover. But no, sleep made it even worse and that was frightening him, because he HAD to sleep.
"Jounouchi Katsuya, are you listening?" The noisy voice of the teacher chimed into his already off-drifting thoughts and he looked up at her with slight confusion. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see his classmates staring at him amusedly. It wasn't the first time today, that the teacher had to make him pay attention to the lesson and the concern was slowly edging into her eyes now as well. Her voice stayed resolute though. "I want to see you after the lesson, young man."
A few sniggers could be heard, silenced immediately as the teacher went on rambling about Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
"Well, what language did the author use in the first act," she asked, picking out a student, who waved his hand exaggeratedly, trying to catch her attention. "Yes, Hanasaki?"
"He used antithesis and oxymoron," he told her, stumbling slightly over his words. "As well as wordplays."
"Can you give me an example?" The teacher asked loudly into the class. That was when Jou blanked her words out again, not able to understand the meaning behind them anyway. He couldn't concentrate. He forced his eyes to open desperately. They burned, his lids wanting to drop down. What was wrong with him?
"An example for antithesis is the description of Romeo's behaviour," Kaiba explained, his voice shaking Jou out of his struggle to stay awake. He looked over to the brunette, who was currently boasting with his knowledge. He probably had it from a book, Jou figured, his attention slowly fading again. He was so tired. A yawn emphasised his thought and he let his chin rest on his crossed arms, halfway lying down on the table, letting Kaiba's words drop onto his senses like rain. Yes, rain was something good. Soothing. Something 'light' and 'dark'... 'day' and 'night'..." Rain... a cold breeze... something warm on his face... summer rain. Warm summer rain. Cool wind... The sun, a rainbow... light and rain.
Silence.
"Jounouchi!"
Rough touch... Something shaking him. A storm. "Jounouchi, wake up!" Loud thunder storm.
Sudden pain. "Hey, stop that!" A familiar voice. Yugi?
Jou jolted awake, his eyes sliding open. He came face to face with Honda, who seemingly had seized him by the clothes and hoisted him upwards, so that he hung like a rag in his grip. Yugi stood beside him, his features, as well as Honda's, showing confusion and something akin to fear. They couldn't have noticed, could they?
"Man, what is the uproar about," he laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "Can't a busy teenager have a little peace to sleep?" The relief on the faces of his friend made him almost sigh in relief himself, but he kept the goofy expression up. Honda let him go and sat back down at his table.
"You just wouldn't wake up." Yugi stuttered, a weak smile on his face.
"Well, I had this really nasty dream," Jounouchi explained, but was interrupted by Honda, who grinned at him cheerily.
"The one with the monkey and the..." he started but Jou punched his arm slightly.
"No, I dreamt about... um..." he burst the first thing out that came to his mind. "...Kaiba!"
"Kaiba," Honda asked, appearing to think for a few seconds. "Sex with Kaiba?" His eyes grew wide and he started gagging.
"NO!" Jou coughed, not daring to look in the direction of the CEO. "How would you think that?!"
"It's the worst thing I can imaging if dreaming about Kaiba." He shook visibly at the thought and the class laughed. Well, except two persons. One of them of course Kaiba himself, who glared at nothing in particular. And the other person...
"Now everyone sit down!" The teacher said loudly. "I don't want anyone to talk about a fellow classmate like that. Jounouchi, you'll stay after the lesson, as I said before. Honda, you as well. Let's go on with the lesson. There are some other wordplays in the first act..."
Jou could feel Kaiba's angry glare in his back, but was too relieved and tired right now to care if the brunette was going to beat him and Honda up for the comments they had made.
Let him beat me up, he thought. Then maybe the pain keeps me awake...
OI
Seto's POV:
What was going on with Jounouchi? He had been reprimanded for not paying attention in class for the fifth time in merely one hour. And again he saw his head sinking down to the desk.
"An example for antithesis is the description of Romeo's behaviour,", he said quietly, answering the teacher's question, but half of his attention stayed on the blonde. "There are contrasts like 'dark' and 'light' and 'day' and 'night'. Especially in line..." He stopped as he saw Yugi nudging his best friend carefully, trying to get him to wake up without the teacher noticing. Jou didn't move a bit, his head just rolling over to the other side as Yugi nudged him a bit harder. Everyone's attention was on the blonde by now, some rolling their eyes.
Why wasn't he waking up? Panic started to rise in Seto's chest as he remembered the weird feeling he had had after looking into Jounouchi's eyes. It couldn't be. He couldn't be...
"Jounouchi!" Yugi called, fear evident in his voice but also quite visible on his face. Seto wondered, how much he knew about the mutt's unusal behaviour, because he was acting more than just concerned. Not that he was going to ask about it, but he was intrigued just the same. And if he wanted something, he got it. And now he wanted to know what that was all about. He narrowed his eyes at the blonde.
Suddenly Honda jumped up from his place, storming over to Jou's desk and gripping the front of the blonde's shirt.
"Jounouchi, wake up," he called, his face a mask of anger and fright. He pulled the lifeless body up, shaking it harshly. Jou's still face scrunched into a pained frown, while Yugi desperately tried to stop Honda.
"Hey, stop that," His eyes flashed slightly, his voice getting more demanding than before. Seto didn't take his time to notice very much of that though. He was too relieved that his fear hadn't been real, that Jou lived.
The blonde opened his eyes, confusion and something else shadowing them. Seto's fear came back full force. His eyes were dull like before. Tired. Dying. He tore his gaze away from them, shivering. He hated that feeling.
I shouldn't care, he told himself firmly. I don't care. He isn't dying. It's not the knowledge of his death, that I'm seeing in his eyes. I have seen that before. It's not that. And what else should it be then? An imagination. The teen most likely just hadn't had a decent night of sleep for a long time.
"Man, what is the uproar about," the blonde suddenly burst out, a mask of carelessness slipping onto his face as soon as he realised his position. Seto wasn't fooled. He knew those masks too well to be tricked by one. "Can't a busy teenager have a little peace to sleep?"
The show the blonde was pulling made Seto want to run over to him and punch him. And punch him hard. It was more than obvious that Jounouchi didn't feel well. He growled softly. Those masks were something to keep others away. Why would the mutt have a reason to keep others at a distance? Well. He surely would find out. Maybe... yeah, cornering him after class and making him speak sounded like a plan.
"Kaiba!"
He snapped out of his thoughts as his name was mentioned. He blinked a few times, then he realised that Jounouchi hadn't been talking TO him, but ABOUT him. Relieved he leant back.
...Wait. They talked about him?!
"Kaiba," Honda asked, falling silent again.
Yeah, what about me? Seto was listening intently.
"Sex with Kaiba?!"
Seto's face fell, a rather red colour spreading over his cheeks before he could prevent it. Why were they talking about having sex with him?! Why was THE MUTT talking about having sex with him?!
"NO!" Jounouchi coughed, looking up to the ceiling with visible embarrassment. "How would you think that?!"
Too speechless to demand an explanation, Seto stared at the two boys. He definitely would corner the mutt after class and he would -get- him to speak not matter what! His sex-life was no business concerning them!
Well, it seemed that he had a lot to discuss with his favourite loser-dog. He smirked a wicked Kaiba-trademark-smirk and suppressed the urge to laugh out loud in the middle of the class. What a weird day.
To Be Continued...
Translation of the title:
Schatten in seinen Augen – Shadows in his eyes